Adaptive Coding for Matrix Multiplication at Edge Networks

TL;DR

This paper introduces ACM^2, an adaptive coding framework for matrix multiplication in edge networks that dynamically optimizes coding strategies considering device heterogeneity and variability, significantly reducing task delays.

Contribution

It proposes an adaptive coding algorithm for matrix multiplication at the edge, accounting for device heterogeneity and dynamics, improving performance over existing methods.

Findings

ACM^2 reduces task completion delay compared to existing algorithms.

The framework effectively balances computation time, storage, and decoding success.

Adaptive coding improves reliability and efficiency in edge matrix multiplication.

Abstract

Edge computing is emerging as a new paradigm to allow processing data at the edge of the network, where data is typically generated and collected, by exploiting multiple devices at the edge collectively. However, exploiting the potential of edge computing is challenging mainly due to the heterogeneous and time-varying nature of edge devices. Coded computation, which advocates mixing data in sub-tasks by employing erasure codes and offloading these sub-tasks to other devices for computation, is recently gaining interest, thanks to its higher reliability, smaller delay, and lower communication cost. In this paper, our focus is on characterizing the cost-benefit trade-offs of coded computation for practical edge computing systems, and develop an adaptive coded computation framework. In particular, we focus on matrix multiplication as a computationally intensive task, and develop an adaptive coding for matrix multiplication (ACM^2) algorithm by taking into account the heterogeneous and time varying nature of edge devices. ACM^2 dynamically selects the best coding policy by taking into account the computing time, storage requirements as well as successful decoding probability. We show that ACM^2 improves the task completion delay significantly as compared to existing coded matrix multiplication algorithms.